A steering hanger assembly for a vehicle is positioned at a rear part of a dashboard between left and right front pillars. Techniques relating to steering hanger assemblies are known from Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2.
The vehicular steering hanger assembly disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is configured so to be substantially crank-shaped in plan view by a first beam, a second beam, and a connecting member. Specifically, the passenger seat side of this assembly is offset from the driver seat side thereof.
The first beam extends toward the lateral center from a right front pillar. The second beam extends toward the lateral center from a left front pillar, and a distal-end part thereof on the center side is offset in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body in relation to a distal-end part of the first beam on the center side thereof. The connecting member connects the mutually offset distal-end parts of the first and second beams.
This assembly increases the degree of freedom of the positioning of the steering column, and of the arrangement of various accessories attached to an instrument panel, such as an audio device, a navigation device, and an air conditioner duct. The space inside a passenger compartment can therefore be efficiently utilized.
A steering hanger assembly generally serves to transmit an impulsive load (side collision load) that occurs during a collision with an obstacle from a side of the vehicle, i.e., a so-called lateral collision, to the opposite side from the collision side. In the assembly disclosed in Patent Literature 1, care must be taken to efficiently transmit a side collision load between the mutually offset first beam and second beam. Since stress is concentrated in the connected portion of the mutually offset distal-end parts of the first and second beams, there is a need to increase the strength and rigidity of the connected portion. However, since simply increasing strength and rigidity leads to increased weight of the vehicle body, there is room for improvement.
The vehicular steering hanger assembly disclosed in Patent Literature 2 employs steering hanger beams configured such that distal-end parts of a pair of beams comprising straight pipes having mutually different thicknesses are fit together. The steering hanger beams are provided between left and right front pillars. A thick beam is positioned on the driver-seat side, and a thin beam is positioned on the passenger-seat side. The strength and rigidity of the steering hanger beams therefore differ between the driver-seat side and the passenger-seat side.
However, in the assembly disclosed in Patent Literature 2, there is room for improvement with regard to increasing the degree of freedom in the arrangement of various accessories.